Georgia Power agrees to new protections against data center costs

Quick, now that high rate floors have been set by several years of data centers, let's call this the baseline and measure future increases against it.

My rate in Oregon went up 70% in 4 years. Not my usage, my rate. I decreased my actual usage each year and still paid more. Funny how that works...

Relevant bits from the article:

Georgia Power also promised a bigger offset to electricity rates come 2029, the next time rates will be set. The utility had previously promised “downward pressure” of about $8.50 per month for customers using 1,000 kilowatt-hours — what the company describes as a typical residential customer — because of increased revenue expected from large customers, mostly data centers. It has now increased the figure to $15. That promise doesn’t mean rates will necessarily go down, but that any increase will be offset by at least that amount. [emphasis added]

They're trying to mislead us that they're stopping rates from rising, but they're not.

The publicly filed version of the contract between Georgia Power and OpenAI, meanwhile, is entirely redacted. Jeffrey Beauvais of the coastal environmental group One Hundred Miles said that means there’s no chance for public scrutiny.

“We’re taking it solely on the word of Georgia Power and the Public Service Commission, and that’s a difficult place to be in as a member of the public,” he said.

As part of the new deal with the PSC, Georgia Power has agreed to release a summary of its contract with OpenAI within ten days, and file summaries of future data center contracts.

"We're going to agree to do part of what we were already legally required to do, by posting a 'summary' that's probably going to 'accidentally' conveniently omit the ratepayer-abusing details, and fuck you if you want more." -- Georgia Power

It's going to go up.

Woohoo!

I still would rather this environmentally destructive data center wasn't built at all, but at least people who live near it aren't subsidizing the cost to keep it running!